“Bite the bullet”: meaning, origin and examples
What it means
To bite the bullet is to make yourself do something difficult or unpleasant that you’ve been putting off, because it has to be done.
Tone Informal; common in conversation and in the news
Meaning
The phrase is about accepting something you don’t want to do: paying a big bill, having a hard conversation, starting a task you’ve been avoiding. It isn’t about bravery in danger. It’s about stopping the delay and getting on with it.
How to use it
It usually follows decide to, have to, finally or just: We finally bit the bullet and bought a new laptop. The past tense is bit the bullet.
It is often followed by and + another verb that says what the unpleasant thing is: She bit the bullet and called the bank.
Where it comes from
The usual story is that, before anaesthetics, soldiers were given a bullet to bite on during painful surgery. It’s a popular explanation, but it’s hard to prove. The phrase appears in print in the 19th century, and Rudyard Kipling used it in his novel The Light That Failed (1891).
Examples
- I hate going to the dentist, but I’ll have to bite the bullet and book an appointment.
- After years of renting, they bit the bullet and bought a flat.
- If your phone is that slow, you might just have to bite the bullet and replace it.
Similar phrases
Face the music (accept the unpleasant results of what you did) and grasp the nettle (deal with a problem firmly, mostly British) are close in meaning.
Quick check
We didn’t want to spend the money, but in the end we the bullet and fixed the roof.
The past simple of bite is bit: we bit the bullet. Bitten is the past participle: we have bitten the bullet.
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